Home > Business > Finance

Stocks close down Thursday on possibility of continued rate hikes

Published: 20 Apr. 2023, 17:14

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2,563.11points on Thursday, down 0.46 percent, or 11.97 points, from the previous trading day. [YONHAP]

Stocks closed down Thursday, as the possibility of continued rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve dented market sentiment. The won rose against the dollar.

The Kospi lost 11.97 points, or 0.46 percent, to close at 2,563.11.

Trading volume was high at 938 million shares worth 12.2 trillion won ($9.2 billion), with losers outnumbering winners 647 to 231.

Foreign investors bought a net 156 billion won worth of stocks, while institutions and retail investors offloaded stocks valued at a net 162 billion won.

Overnight, Wall Street closed little changed following the release of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book, Fed officials' hawkish comments and a string of mixed corporate earnings, including Tesla and Morgan Stanley.

The Federal Reserve's Beige Book, released Wednesday, showed inflation and employment slowed in 12 Fed districts, and loan demand decreased.

Fed officials, however, still signaled another rate hike is coming at their rate-setting meeting between May 3 and 4 to try to wrestle down inflation to their 2 percent target.

In Seoul, most big-cap stocks lost ground.

Samsung Electronics shed 0.31 percent to close at 65,300 won, and chipmaker SK hynix declined 0.57 percent to 87,700 won.

LG Electronics lost 2.04 percent to 110,600 won.

Hyundai Motor inched down 0.57 percent to 192,500 won, and Kia fell 1.52 percent to 84,100 won.

Battery maker LG Energy Solution declined 0.34 percent to 580,000 won, and Samsung SDI shed 1.19 percent to 749,000 won.

Among the few gainers, LG Chem advanced 1.27 percent to 800,000 won, and Naver inched up 0.1 percent to 191,600 won.

Arms manufactuere Hyundai Rotem surged 11.62 percent to 31,700 won on hopes of exporting more K2 battle tanks to Europe.

The local currency ended at 1,322.8 won against the U.S. dollar, up 2.9 won from the previous session's close.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year government bonds gained 1.2 basis points to 3.345 percent, and the yield on the benchmark 10-year government bonds jumped 1.6 basis points to 3.592 percent.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO, YONHAP [[email protected]]